I recently had a question on the #sqlhelp hashtag on Twitter regarding how OLE DB Providers map the data columns to SQL Server data types.

The Data Type Mappings for SQL Server for distributed queries are mentioned here. The DBType values for each data that you are retrieving from a non-SQL data source like Oracle, Excel, Access can be found out using RowSet Viewer. The Microsoft® Developer Network (MSDN®) Platform SDK contains an OLE DB RowsetViewer sample application written in Microsoft Visual C++®. This application enables you to connect to either the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM or the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2, open a table window, type the host file name or DB2 database, return a rowset, and browse the contents.

Using Rowset Viewer you can get the DBType of each column returned from the remote data source. The function used is IColumnsRowset::GetColumnsRowset. Using this you can create the necessary schema on the SQL Server database which will act as the destination for the data received from the remote data source.

Happy DB Scheming!